Jump in Aylmer cases

Southwestern Public Health was reporting 26 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Elgin, St. Thomas and Woodstock on Tuesday morning, Dec. 22.

That brought the ongoing total number of cases to 160, up from 158 the previous day.

Aylmer and area saw a considerable jump to 33 cases on Tuesday from 27 on Monday, and Central Elgin rose to four cases from three.

St. Thomas and area saw a drop to 23 from 28, Bayham to eight from 10 and West Elgin to four from five, while Southwold remained steady at one case.

In Oxford, Tillsonburg and area rose slightly to 23 cases from 22, Blandford-Blenheim to 12 from 10 and East Zorra-Tavistock to 11 from six.

Norwich dropped to 22 from 24, Woodstock and area to eight from 10, Ingersoll and area to seven from eight and Zorra to three from four.

Elgin County in recent days has announced a total of three staff members at Terrace Lodge long-term care home in Malahide have tested positive for COVID-19, and Southwestern was reporting two staff cases at Chartwell Aylmer long-term care home, an outbreak that started on Saturday, Dec. 19.

The infection rate for the Southwestern Region stands at 75.7 per 100,000 of population, up from 74.7 the previous day.

Across Ontario, 2,202 new cases were confirmed on Tuesday, down slightly from 2,213 on Monday.